The Belle Epoque is a turbulent period in Western European history between about 1880 and 1914 characterized by an emerging modernization in social and political organization, artistic and literary life and in the conduct and discoveries of the sciences.Papers for the colloquium will explore aspects of network development, information creation, organization and exchange, and related “boundary spanning” activities of individuals and institutions and the scholarly tools and techniques that enabled them to develop during the period of the “Belle époque” in which the Western European world underwent extensive social, political and “epistemic” change.